Christian Liepack Becomes CFG’s 22,222 Sub

Air freight topics did not stand very high on Christian’s daily to-do list during his 10-year tenure at his former employer Air Berlin. This, because they did not belong to his duties but were looked after by Leisure Cargo, the carrier’s legally autonomous freight arm that was outsourced 18 years ago.  

A nightmare
In his former role as Air Berlin speaker, he has gone through nerve-racking moments and days last year; no one envied him. After all, Mr Liepack had to provide the pack of the press people with almost hourly updates on the financially worsening situation of the carrier that became dramatic when its major shareholder Etihad decided to stop pumping additional money into the loss-making airline. “The worst day of my ten-year Air Berlin career was August 15th, when I had to send out a release announcing the insolvency of the company,” he recalls.

A nightmare for any person in charge of media relations being the voice of an enterprise that comes one step closer to its demise every day.

New challenge
This all belongs to the past now. By joining the MaR agency and becoming the company’s Managing Director and coordinator of the Aviation Team, the former Air Berliner has taken on a new challenge.
The 43-year-old communication professional’s first impressions after delving deeper into the matter: “What surprised me most is the lack of public appreciation for the cargo business. Obviously, not many people know that the shelves at their supermarkets would be empty within a few days should international supply chains, of which air freight is an essential part, break suddenly down.”

Improving the image of the cargo industry
Thus, contributing to a better reputation of the cargo segment, Christian sees as an important mission in his new role at MaR. Being a trained forwarding agent, a job he did before joining Air Berlin, he feels well prepared for his new task. He admits, however, that the cargo industry has undergone considerable changes over the past few years. Therefore, for updating his expertise, it is imperative to get as much insight information as obtainable in the shortest possible time, he says.
That is why he began exchanging views with marketing experts, speaking with cargo managers as often as he can, and reading relevant media that focus on air freight and logistics topics. Such as Cargo Forwarder Global, “which I became aware of only a couple of days ago but subscribed to immediately following careful reading,” he states.
We wish him much success in his new task.

Heiner Siegmund